District 5 Diary

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wiener and the weenie-waggers

This month I introduced legislation to restrict public nudity to appropriate venues, like parades, street festivals, and beaches, while prohibiting the display of genitalia in other public places including city plazas, parklets, sidewalks, streets and public transit. This proposed ordinance came about as a result of a sharp increase in public nudity in the Castro, most notably in Jane Warner Plaza at Castro and Market. What was once an occasional sighting has turned into a near-daily nudist colony in what is essentially the Castro's town square. I hadn't planned on pursuing this ban, and I'd hoped this issue would resolve itself, but sentiment in the community, from gay and straight residents, small business owners, and others, has turned against this obnoxious behavior. The goal of this legislation is not to punish people, but to get them to put their clothes back on while in our neighborhoods so that everyone can enjoy our public space.

In other words, after a lot of negative feedback from his constituents, Wiener belatedly recognizes that this behavior is "obnoxious" and that the problem didn't "resolve itself." It was just as obnoxious last year, when he proposed his half-assed, so to speak, legislationthat failed to deal with the problem.

Hipsters and the Cute Movement

The list below is from Die Hipster.Com, a Brooklyn blog that, as the title suggests, takes a dim view of what it calls hipsters. While this blogger is more of a hater than I am, there's some overlap in our concerns. What he calls out as hipster exhibitionism, I dubbed the Cute Movement here in San Francisco. The points in common: exhibitionism, their apparent belief that they're adorable, and the fixation on bikes. Die Hipster is also understandably concerned about the effects of gentrification:

Hipsters have filthy facial hair; beards and moustaches belong on certain men, not every last gentrifier that moves to Brooklyn.

Hipsters love paving our streets with bike lanes yet 90% of them are unused. They don’t know how to ride bikes in a city and chain their vintage Schwinns all over the place.

Many hipsters are hypocrites---they claim organic is healthier (which it isn’t) and want to line our streets with rainbow kale and fountains that spout hand-crafted artisanal water yet they smoke, drink, and do drugs constantly.

Hipsters are music, art and literature snobs. It’s impossible to have a normal conversation with one without them trying to show you their superiority even though they have none.

Hipsters avoid all types of born and raised locals of the city they move to. Here in Brooklyn, if they hear a real Brooklyn accent you are immediately looked at as an uncultured idiot or an unlawful brute.

Hipsters can be found at all hours of a normal working day just walking around like zombies in their wannabe rock star and artist uniforms somehow managing to pay for overpriced rents, foods, and accessories. (Somehow = parents)